Over ten species of sea cucumbers can be found on the seafloor of the Santa Barbara Channel. Sea cucumbers eat astonishing amounts of debris that falls to the seafloor and, by doing so, have a major impact on the ecology of the seafloor.
Warty sea cucumber by island (CINP data)
Figure App.F.13.12.. A figure showing the average density of warty sea cucumbers across the Northern Channel Islands from 2005 - 2016.
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Figure App.F.13.12. Average density of warty sea cucumber Parastichopus parvimensis at Channel Islands National Park kelp forest monitoring sites at the five islands in Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Densities are lower, but stable at San Miguel (blue) and Santa Rosa (red) islands, while densities have declined recently at the other islands. For this graph, sea cucumber density was averaged across all monitoring sites at each island, including sites located inside and outside of marine reserves and conservation areas, to examine course-scale trends by island. At a finer scale, sea cucumber density is responding differently inside and outside of some marine protected areas (MPAs) in CINMS. A discussion of MPA effects in CINMS is available in MPA Effects. Figure: Channel Islands National ParkSea cucumber island vs. mainland (SBC-LTER data)
Figure App.F.13.13.. A figure showing a comparison of the average density of sea cucumbers from two of the Northern Channel Islands to mainland sites from 2000 - 2015.